Everybody Wants Beavers!

In the UK, the European beaver was driven to extinction hundreds of years ago. The Wildlife Trust has revealed that this rodent is suddenly in great demand (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/12/record-number-of-beavers-to-be-released-in-britain-this-year). Beavers are now well-established in Devon (illegally-released animals are now allowed to stay) and Scotland, where their dam building appears to reduce flooding risk, as well as boosting the numbers of hundreds of other appreciated species (including plants, insects, fish, amphibians and birds). Obviously this sharp-toothed rodent levels trees (to eat and provide building material). They mainly stick, however, to saplings, located by watercourses. The Wildlife Trust note that plans have been announced to reintroduce record numbers of beavers to Derbyshire, Dorset, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Nottinghamshire and Montgomeryshire. Beavers might well become commonplace again throughout the UK. Let's hope that the fashion for fur hats does not reoccur!